Former state legislator Harold Byrd, now the Bank of Bartlett vice chairman, as recently as 2014 described U of M as one of the few institutions in the region powerful enough on its own to reshape the economy here.

Finally, the university is trying to do just that.

James Edward Townsend III, a U of M graduate, son of a retired U.S. Air Force master sergeant, is the point man in that high-profile effort.

He goes by the name Ted.

Connections

He remembers the day he told M. David Rudd he was thinking of coming home.

Rudd, the U of M president, and Townsend regularly had crossed paths.

Rudd chaired the Memphis Research Consortium. Townsend represented the state of Tennessee on the group. It consisted of university, medical science and medical device executives who had banded in 2011 to spur scientific research spending in Greater Memphis over the $1 billion-per-year level by 2020.

Ted Townsend represented the Department of Economic and Community Development when he announced Tennessee had been named state of the year, during a luncheon in Jackson, Tenn.(Photo11: MEGAN SMITH/The Jackson Sun)

Townsend was chief operations officer in Tennessee’s Department of Economic and Community Development, but was not a career state employee. Right after leaving U of M, Townsend had been an entrepreneur in Memphis, then co-founded arGentis Pharmaceuticals LLC, a tech startup hatched in the Medical District inside BioWorks Foundation and now in business in Collierville. Townsend remains an arGentis owner but is not active in the company.

By 2011, Townsend had joined the Department of Economic and Community Development. The agency funds incentive packages for expanding businesses. He rose rapidly in TECD all the way to No. 2 executive — the chief operating officer, managing the $200 million economic development incentive and operational budget. At one point he ran the entire agency until Gov. Bill Haslam appointed a new director.

Knowing that term limits would end Haslam’s term, Townsend realized the time to leave government had neared. Early last year he told Rudd he hoped to return home to Memphis permanently in 2018. His family was here and he had kept the Midtown house and commuted to Nashville.

Perfect timing

Rudd listened. Both were energetic.

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University of Memphis President David Rudd(Photo11: Brad Vest/The Commercial Appeal)

Notable early in his career for psychology research into suicide, Rudd had been employed by U of M only about two years when he was named president in 2014. He took the job amid high expectations.

“Memphis and the metro area needs a leader to help provide a blueprint and a path for political, business, civic, and clergy to follow,” Byrd said back then.

Taking on the task of shoring up a university strained by tight budgets, Rudd had looked for ways to bring in money, attract talented students and ensure vibrant communities in the neighborhoods around the 21,300-student campus.

By 2017, U of M’s Board of Trustees was impressed. With turnover rising among college presidents throughout the nation, the board raised Rudd’s pay by creating a privately funded $1 million retention package. By then, Rudd and Townsend had talked often.

“He was helping to drive a lot of the momentum on the consortium,” Townsend said.

Once Townsend let the university chief know he wanted to leave Nashville, Rudd figured Townsend could do at U of M what he had done for the state.

“Your timing is perfect,” Townsend remembers Rudd told him.

Boosting U of M

Townsend, who cleared out of his office in Nashville on the first Friday of 2018, remembers he pinned a University of Memphis lapel pin to his suit coat, and began his new job on the first Monday of the year.

He began talking to government officials and state legislators in Nashville. He actually has two roles. His title is U of M chief economic development and government relations officer.

“We have to let folks know U of M is here,” Townsend said, adding the university will provide orientation meetings for new legislators from throughout the state to help them understand U of M's critical role in West Tennessee.

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University of Memphis President David Rudd talks to the crowd as University of Memphis officials announce former Tigers star Penny Hardaway as its new men's basketball coach(Photo11: Brad Vest/The Commercial Appeal)

U of M has employed government relations officers in the past, but the activity lessened as the budget tightened. Townsend hired Jennie Verner as lobbyist. The senior director of government relations and policy, she was director of government affairs in Nashville at the Tennessee State Collaborative on Reforming Education.

Rudd lauds Townsend's ability to blend entrepreneurial experience with a thorough understanding of the state's approach to economic development.

“Ted’s rare blend of skills afforded a unique opportunity, with a convergence of expertise in economic development, an extensive network in TN and beyond, firsthand experience as an entrepreneur, and considerable experience in the TN Legislature,’’ Rudd wrote in an email.

Townsend inherits a number of tasks. The Crews Center for Entrepreneurship reports to him. His duties extend to U of M's Lambuth Campus in Jackson. He hired Cody Fletcher as community developer, guiding commercial development in neighborhoods near the main campus at Highland and Central.

Townsend is also recruiting new enterprises from around the country and preparing to devote more office and lab space including on South Campus to new firms, including a pair of bitcoin tech startups attracted to campus. He's also partnering with the university's newly launched UMRF Ventures Inc., which develops and recruits firms.

Gradual pace

Townsend reasons Memphis will see U of M's economic development activities flower into full bloom, but it will take time.

“We understand this is a gradual pace,” Townsend said.

His presence, though, already has been beneficial. When a Chinese business delegation meeting in Nashville earlier this month asked to visit Memphis, state officials phoned Townsend. He opened the door. U of M helped host the group in Memphis.

"Ted will elevate the level of our involvement in economic development work, certainly the work that flows from the state,'' said U of M economist John Gnuschke. "That was a post we desperately needed."